Some two decades ago, filmmaker Andrew Nicols wrote and directed GATTACA a sci-fi movie that presented a future in which individuals and society were at risk from having gained access to and control of our genetic code.
Today, 20 years after the movie's initial release, that future fiction, once considered distant, impossible, futuristic is, in many ways, now. More than 500 laboratories offer 2,000 genetic tests. Once limited to medical professionals, the FDA has approved direct-to-consumer genetic tests that can test for 5,000 variants. Instead of looking at simple chromosomes, we can pay for the sequencing almost all of our genetic material.
For some parents-to-be, prenatal genetic screening and preimplantation genetic diagnosis allows couples to decide whether to complete the pregnancy of an embryo found to have "disorders and mutations" or, to have the embyro implanted at all.

Are we paying attention to the ways this information could alter the human race in ways we once thought only possible in sci-fi novels and movies like GATTACA? While the general consensus in the scientific community seems to be to steer clear of research that affects hereditary genetic traits, the push to test that boundary seems inevitable.
To consider these questions in 2018, The Center for Genetics and Society and the Haas Institute for a Fair and Inclusive Society presented two screenings of GATTACA followed by panel discussions with the audiences in the Bay Area.

Life of the Law Senior Producer, Tony Gannon and Associate Producer producer Andrea Hendrickson were there and produced this episode. 

Episode 134: GATTACA REVISITED

Up the Borrowed Ladder

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For more information about GATTACA, gene editing and the ethics of biotechnology, visit our website www.lifeofthelaw.org
Share your thoughts with us at connect@lifeofthelaw.org

There are certain episodes of Life of the Law that require mental rigour, stamina, fortitude and - if necessary - an acceptance of the real time it takes to complete production of an episode. Episode 134: GATTACA REVISITED required all of these things to get us through the creative process. I was excited by the subject-matter, presented to us by LOTL Advisory Board Member and scholar Osagie Obasagie, for one reason: the focus was the 1997 movie GATTACA.

 

I was also excited to bring Andrea Hendrickson into the fold at LOTL, guiding her through the process of an episode from conception to final publication. Confident as I was that this would be a unique episode, little did I expect to find myself revisiting my knowledge of biology, or pouring through research on policies affecting genomic research, or pulling yet more clips from the movie to illustrate just how prescient it was. It didn’t help that I had a 10 day off-grid vacation planned at the moment we needed to commence production, leaving Andrea to obsess over two days of panel discussions, on-site interviews with the event’s attendees, and a complex film that will forever resonate in our subconscious.

 

The payoff has been immense. This species of episode is born only after an ‘aha' moment reveals itself to its frazzled ‘doctors.’ There were many such ‘aha’ moments. One was the discovery of the Superfest Disability Film Festival, which co-sponsored the second night’s screening of the film. It opened my eyes in a way I’d never expected, namely by showing me that the visually impaired can enjoy the act of ‘watching’ a movie as much as the visually enabled. If this job brings me joy, it’s due to meeting people like Katie Murphy, the event’s audio describer, and who you hear throughout the episode, bringing the film GATTACA to life.

 

Another ‘aha’ moment came while interviewing Professor Osagie Obasagie. It came at the moment that I realized and said out loud that, "I was born into this world without any genetic intervention." During our interview, I thought to myself that while I did not fully understand the concept of rights bestowed on an unborn child, and that I did not recall giving consent to being born in the first place, I was also somehow grateful that my parents did not seek out a germ-line modification of my DNA (as impossible as it would have been at the time of my birth) and the realization that my children may not have the same option. Also, will there be a gene for the human spirit in the future?

 

Lastly, there was an ‘aha’ moment in the creation of this episode with fellow producer Andrea Hendrickson, whose exhaustive thoroughness was matched only by her talent as a musician and storyteller. The moment came early as a laugh working with someone who has a sense of humor even after way too many hours in pursuit of the goal of episode-creation. This ‘aha’ moment was a sustained note until the very end. We look forward to working with Andrea, again.